


Hey Pumpkin

by Sholio



Category: The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: Autumn, Festivals, Gen, Halloween, Pumpkins, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2020-12-21 00:55:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21066092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sholio/pseuds/Sholio
Summary: Halloween is not Jessica's favorite time of year, and it's especially not her favorite time of year when haunted fall festivals are involved.





	Hey Pumpkin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alchemise](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alchemise/gifts).

Jessica couldn't even remember the last time she'd been out of the city. Years for sure, and now here she was, trapped in hell: otherwise known as the Littleton Apple Festival and Corn Maze, or something along those lines.

At least she had the vague satisfaction that Matt and Luke both looked as uncomfortable and out of place as she felt. Danny was the one person who seemed to be enjoying himself, or at least she presumed so; he'd seen a sign that said PETTING ZOO ten minutes ago and now he was nowhere to be found.

"Can we just find these damn ghosts and get out of here?" she muttered. She and Matt were literally the only people at the entire stupid festival wearing black (well, a charcoal-gray sweater with a black topcoat over it in Matt's case, for whatever that was worth). And half the people around them were wearing costumes. Jessica had a horrible premonition that someone, somehow, was going to find a way to get her into a pumpkin mask if she didn't escape soon.

"Yeah, for that we need Danny," Matt said, overhearing her because of course he did.

"I'll check the corn maze," Luke said, and was gone before she could stop him. At least he was big enough that he wasn't hard to keep track of, unlike some people she could mention.

"And then there were two," Matt said, smiling faintly.

"Can't you hear him or smell him or something?"

Matt shook his head. "Too many distractions."

Jessica swore, and glared at a lady dressed like a witch who was handing out paper cups of hot cider. Then she felt vaguely guilty about it and took a cup of cider to make up for it.

"Do you think there are really ghosts here?" she asked as they circulated with the crowd and tried not to trip over squealing kids in costumes.

"I trust Danny," Matt said, which wasn't precisely an answer.

Jessica doctored the cider generously from the flask in her pocket and then wrapped her hands around the paper cup. Cider was an inefficient alcohol-delivery mechanism, but the sun was setting and she appreciated the warmth.

"If he invented some ghosts just to make us take him to a fall festival, I will murder him."

Matt smiled. "I can at least tell you that he's not doing that. He wasn't lying."

"I don't seriously think he was lying." She heaved a sigh and gazed at the corn maze, lit up with tiki torches in a way that seemed like a profound fire hazard. "I just can't believe I've reached a point in my life that I am, in all seriousness, looking for ghosts in a haunted corn maze."

Matt's smile widened into something that might be described as a grin. "Want to go in there?"

"In the _corn maze?"_

"Why not?"

"Because it's ridiculous!"

"We won't get lost. I can find our way out easily."

"I wasn't worried about getting lost, I was worried about looking like a complete idiot."

*

Half an hour later she had straw in her hair and she _was not_ having fun, dammit. Also, she had _definitely_ caught a glimpse of Danny on the hay rides, but by the time they got out of the damn maze and got over there, he was gone again. At least she could see Luke by the candy apple table, but by the time they waded through hordes of children to get there, he'd vanished too. It was completely dark now.

"I'm going to kill them," Jessica said flatly. She was out of cider and almost out of booze. She was sure she'd seen a beer tent earlier, but now she couldn't find that either. She took a maple-flavored sucker from another table just to give herself something to do with her hands.

"You ever done anything like this before?" Matt asked.

"Are you joking? New York is notoriously lacking in corn mazes. Although," she added, caught off guard by an unexpected childhood memory, "we used to go watch the pumpkin flotilla in Central Park when I was a kid."

"Pumpkin flotilla?"

"Yeah, you know, on the lake; didn't you ever go?" But as soon as the words were out of her mouth she wanted to stuff them back in. A bunch of jack-o-lanterns floating around on a pond weren't going to be very exciting for a blind man, and anyway, what she'd picked up of Matt's childhood suggested that it wasn't the sort of childhood that involved family trips to Central Park for autumn festivals.

"I think I know what you're thinking," Matt said, smiling briefly. "I'm not offended. It sounds like fun."

The only response she could manage was a huff, but at least she'd finally managed to locate the beer tent. All they had was beer, and it came in the same paper cups as the cider, but at least it had alcohol in it. She got two of those, Matt picked up one of his own when she made it clear she had no interest in sharing, and then she turned around and almost tripped over Luke and Danny.

"Finally!" she said, glaring at them, and then she got a better look at Danny. "What on earth happened to you?"

"I found the face painting booth," Danny said cheerfully.

Jessica tried to wrench her eyes away from his glittery skull-themed face. "Have you forgotten we're looking for ghosts here? And the only one who can find them is you?"

"I never said ghosts, I said dark energy. You guys are the ones who keep talking about ghosts." Danny wiggled the fingers on his Iron Fist hand. "I can definitely feel it here, but it's diffuse. Almost like it's everywhere instead of localized to one particular place. Or maybe just too far away for me to sense it clearly --"

Which of course was when the screaming started outside, and a panicked-looking farmer type dashed into the beer tent to yell, "There's a jack-o-lantern tryin' to gnaw Jim's arm off! Someone get a pitchfork!"

Jessica hated this day.

*

"I hate this day," Jessica said loudly, flopped in the back of Danny's incredibly expensive car and picking slimy pumpkin bits out of her hair.

It turned out that Iron Fist-ing an entire haunted pumpkin patch made an incredible mess. Although it did seem to have taken care of the problem. Danny had tried to explain it in terms of light energy driving off dark energy but in Jessica's opinion, it was more to do with the fact that anything would stop trying to fight when you hit it hard enough to turn it into puree.

"Oh, crud," Danny said from the front. "I was going to get a caramel apple for Colleen."

"We are not turning back around," Luke said flatly. He was driving, since Danny had fisted himself into a state of exhaustion. ("Stop calling it that, Jessica.")

"You know what we are doing, though?" Jessica said. "Next time we pass a town that looks like it's big enough to have a liquor store, we're stopping and I'm getting a fifth of bourbon."

"Open container law," Matt murmured beside her.

"Kiss my entire ass, Murdock."

"He's not wrong," Luke said over his shoulder. "I realize I'm bulletproof, but the rest of you aren't, and I'm already driving while black in upstate New York, not to mention being a felon, technically. I don't need to add DUI to the mix."

"Fine," Jessica sulked, sinking down (rather squishily) in her seat. Ugh. She had pumpkin in places no one should have pumpkin. She was taking a long shower when she got home and never eating pumpkin pie again.

Matt gave a sudden soft laugh and nudged her. 

"What is it, traitor?" Jessica muttered.

"Admit it," he said quietly enough that the front seat couldn't hear them. "You had a little bit of fun."

"Did not."

"You know I can tell when people are lying, right?"

"You know I can punch hard enough to knock you through the door of this car, right?"

"Are you kids fighting in the backseat?" Luke said.

"Don't make us turn this car around," Danny added, and they both _giggled_ (a word Jessica would never in a million years have thought to apply to Luke Cage before). Okay, that was it, those two were spending _way_ too much time together.

"Don't make me kick your seat," Jessica said, and did it anyway, driving his seat forward a few inches on its tracks.

"Ow! C'mon, don't break my car, Jessica."

"Are we there yet?" Matt said, and Luke made a choking sound.

"Wake me up when we get to the city," Jessica said, and she laid her head back on the seat and closed her eyes and smiled in the dark, where no one could see.

**Author's Note:**

> [Central Park pumpkin flotilla.](http://www.centralparknyc.org/events/individual-events/halloween-pumpkin-flotilla-2019.html)


End file.
